


strength of the small

by nowweareunstoppable



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blood and Gore, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, No shipping, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-09-13 02:22:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9102247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nowweareunstoppable/pseuds/nowweareunstoppable
Summary: A false distress signal lands the paladins in a tough situation. It falls to Pidge to earn their freedom, and it doesn't come without a dangerous cost.





	

Pidge’s armor was not waterproof. Or maybe it would have been if not for the cracks spidering up the front plating of her shin guard and the giant tear in her black under-suit. The internal cycling systems had done their best to keep out the foul smelling water for the first forty-five minutes of their slogging trudge, but now the piss-warm, brackish water had seeped its way inside her boots and under her armor.

It wasn’t fair. The water barely passed Shiro’s mid calf, but it was all the way above Pidge’s knees. The depth, added to the mud sucking away at every step, plus the giant hand wrapped around the back of her neck were all beginning to wear on Pidge’s patience. Up ahead, Lance didn’t seem to be faring much better. His captor was pushing him with its giant, tree-like arms so that Lance could barely find his feet before he was shoved forward again. The corded, branchlike twists that made up the limbs and fingers of this species looked so similar to the actual trees that inhabited this stinking planet that Pidge would be hard pressed to tell them apart from the trees if they weren’t moving.

That is how they got caught after all. 

“Stop pushing him!” Pidge couldn’t help but yelp out as Lance lost his footing again after a particularly brutal shove and crashed down onto his knees. With his hands bound behind his back like the rest of them, there was little more than Lance could do but twist his face in exhaustion and disgust as the brown water splashed up onto his chest.

“We told you no talking,” Pidge’s captor snarled. Its voice was deep, but had strange undertones that sounded like the creaking and groaning of a forest in a windstorm. The impatient alien used the grip it had on her neck and shoulder to effortlessly lift her off the ground and hurl her forward. She crashed hard into the back of the leg of the tree alien in front of her, the one holding Hunk. It whipped around with a creak of annoyance and ground its heel down hard into the dip between her shoulder blades; forcing her down onto her stomach. Pidge managed to activate her full face helmet shield just in time to get pressed down under the water. Mud smeared across her visor as she thrashed, trying to heave the foot off of her. It was impossible. The alien tree creatures were nearly eight feet tall and their legs were literally tree trunks. 

What they saw from the planet so far was covered in shallow water and what looked like a thicker, taller version of mangrove trees. The aliens matched the trees in size and silvery color. They didn’t seem to be made of any sort of recognizable flesh, just twisting roots and branches that formed limbs and muscles. Pidge could no more stand up then she could uproot an oak with her bare hands.

Pidge could hear her teammates shouting even over her own panicked splashing as she tried to free herself. Water started to trickle into her helmet from where it connected to the rest of her broken, leaking armor. After what seemed like an eternity, the foot lifted off of her and a familiar grip on the back of her neck yanked her up out of mud with a sucking squelch. She rubbed her visor against her shoulder, hacking and choking, frantically trying to scrape the mud off so she could see. When the gunk was finally cleared away it revealed Keith scrambling against a headlock and Shiro bleeding against his bindings. He was tied in such a way that his Galra arm was fully activated and humming menacingly, but entirely immobile behind him. His captor, a tree alien with two still smoking stumps where his finger-branches used to be, had apparently learned his lesson from the paladins’ capture earlier that day.

“Don’t you touch her!” Hunk choked out. His captor cuffed him upside the head and he fell silent. His eyes met Pidge’s, though, and his gaze burned. She looked at Lance, who gave her a similar look and a strong nod. They were going to be okay. Stay strong. They would find a way out of this.

The alien that’d been leading the slog turned slowly around. It gazed around at the various states of disarray of its captors. The thing’s eyes were a silvery shade just lighter than the bark of its skin, and Pidge could just barely make out a sideways slit of a dark pupil. 

“The next one who speaks a single word will be drowned.” The lead alien met each of their eyes in turn and then gave a decisive nod. Then, the great corded branches of its legs started another trek forward into the tangled depths of the forest.

Pidge looked to Shiro, who was already trying to catch her eye. He raised his eyebrow in a silent question and Pidge nodded, Yes, I’m okay. The tension in Shiro’s shoulders lessened slightly and he gave her a nod in return. The purple glow of his arm faded.

They trudged on for another mile at least. The mangroves were so thick at this point it was more of a climb than a walk. More than once Pidge’s oh so friendly escort had to bodily lift her up and over tangles of roots by the nape of her neck. Her face burned in equal parts shame and pain whenever she the alien scooped her up and slammed her back down again. None of the other paladins had to be carried like a stupid cub. Their legs were long enough. They didn’t have to feel wet roots clench under their jaws or listen to derisive snorts whenever they hit another impassable point.

Pidge sucked in a deep breath and tried to calm herself. She cast a mental probe out for Green, trying in vain to feel for any spark of contact from her lion. Their bond was strengthening everyday, slowly but still noticeably. She had yet to actually hear Green’s voice inside her head like Lance swore he could with Blue, but the giant beast enjoyed sending her mental pictures and small bursts of emotion. The giant mech would flash her bits of annoyance at Keith and Lance’s bickering when Allura was trying to debrief them or pieces of schematics when Pidge was stuck on a problem in her lab, and occasionally Green sent her favorite emotion; strength. 

When she was flying Green, she didn’t feel like the smallest paladin. She wasn’t the person that got knocked down by bigger cadets at the Garrison or the youngest one on the team. Pidge had fully accepted her role of tech specialist but she resented that the other paladins seemed to view her solely as such. She’d been working hard in training, and had even started lifting weights with Allura when they both had downtime; yet the boys still seemed to unconsciously pull punches and automatically move to protect her during group sessions. Pidge knew she wasn’t weak, but sometimes she wasn’t sure that her teammates truly got it. But, whenever Pidge’s self worth faltered, Green sent her images of them fighting and flying; huge and full of confidence. Nobody could touch her when she was inside Green, and everybody knew it.

Unfortunately, Green was miles away, under a particle barrier in the trees on the edge of the beach where they landed. Shiro’s lion was sitting dormant not too far away, next to the ancient ship they’d come to the planet to find. It was almost entirely covered in foliage and three quarters underwater when they found it. Hunk estimated that it’d crashed on this planet over two hundred years ago, judging from the rust patterns and mechanical decay. The only sign of life from the ship was the ancient distress beacon still flickering through the comm out into space. The inhabitants of the ship were nowhere to be found. They’d probably been dead for centuries, Pidge thought with a shudder. They were far, far too late. And now Green and Black weren’t close enough to help any of them. If only they’d brought all of the lions… but it was only a single signal, and Allura didn’t want to risk all of the lions in case of another Rolo situation.

The mission had been sour right from the start. The atmosphere on the planet was strangely charged and shorted out the communication systems upon entry. Allura must have gambled and decided to give them time to complete a rescue mission instead of bringing down the entire Castle and risking their systems as well. Pidge shook her head and silently cursed to herself. They’d thought this mission over and taken precautions, and yet they’d still gotten themselves into trouble. Allura probably thought they were still helping out with the distress signal when it was them who actually needed rescuing. Voltron just could not catch a break.

She was jarred from her musings when she was yet again heaved upwards. Pidge opened her mouth to snap at but caught herself with a swift bite to her own tongue. She wasn’t really in the mood to be drowned today (again). This time, though, the alien didn’t drop her back down immediately. The hold on her neck and shoulder became increasingly painful and she started to struggle against it. The alien released a growling sigh and readjusted his hold so that Pidge was now wedged underneath his arm like an uncomfortable football. Pidge hated sports.

The land was rising, and after a minute or so had passed, the alien footsteps sounded less like splashes and more like squelches of mud. Pidge was dangling face down so she occupied herself studying the structure of what she could see of the alien’s legs. She watched several corded branches slide like ligaments and tendons around what must have functioned as the knee. It looked a lot like human anatomy, only made of weird tree flesh, and without any skin. The feet looked less like human toes and more like an outgrowth of roots. Pidge watched the gnarled tendrils flex and grip at the ground and the mangrove tree roots to maintain a steady balance as they moved up the uneven terrain.

Pidge didn’t get scared very often. She tended to be rather single-minded; when in pursuit of a goal, fear took a backseat. Pidge’s mind devoured problems, picked them apart and reworked them until they swayed in her direction. It was hard to focus on being scared when there was work to be done. But right now, there was no shield to bring down, or system to break open. There were just the trees, and the mud and the quiet pants of her teammates. The only problem she had to solve was how to escape from the tree aliens, and there was nothing to work with. Even if she was able to escape the grip of her captor, Pidge wouldn’t be able to free the other four, and there was no way she could bring herself to leave them. Hell, Pidge wasn’t even sure she could find her way out of this messed up forest on her own. 

The fear started to trickle in. 

Then, the aliens slowed, and one after the other, ducked under a tight archway of tree branches, dragging their paladins behind him. Pidge’s still held her against its side and the tight wall of branches scraped at her armor as they passed through.

They were the last through the opening, and when Pidge was finally set back onto her feet, she was facing a semi-circle of tree aliens. The four that were carrying her friends, several others that had been involved in the ambush, plus the leader, and then at least a dozen more were crowded along the edges of a shallow bowl scraped into the ground, at least 50 feet in diameter. The mangrove trees formed tangled walls around the bowl and the only opening wide enough to fit through was the one they had just entered. The trees were so thick that Pidge couldn’t really see the sky, but it must still be daylight because the makeshift arena was lit by a pallid light filtering in through the treetops.

The lead alien thudded into the center of the bowl and addressed his audience with a bellow, “Imposters! I am Kreank, and this is my planet! It belongs to the Trauks! You have infiltrated my home without my permission, and for this, you will have to answer.”

Pidge heard Hunk whimper from off to her left and Keith snarled, but it was Shiro that actually made an attempt to address Kreank. Shiro cleared his throat, and when the tree giant swung his head to look at him, Shiro raised an eyebrow in a silent ask for permission to speak.

Kreank nodded his great head and said, “Speak, leader of the Beetle people.”

Beetle people? Huh? Pidge cocked her head trying to figure out if the translator in her helmet was on the fritz, but quickly realized that the Trauks probably thought that their armor was a part of them, seeing as they wore nothing but the bark from their limbs themselves.

Shiro also looked confused but dipped his head towards Kreank and forged on, “Thank you, Kreank. I offer greetings to your people. We are paladins of Voltron and I assure you, we mean no harm to you or your planet. If you release us, I promise you that we will leave here and never come back.”

The Trauks gathered around them started to make a silvery noise, high and dry in the back of their throats like leaves being rustled in the wind. Pidge thought that it might be laughter.

Kreank joined his people in their mirth and then grated out, “Foolish Beetles. How do you think this planet has stayed free for so long? The trees protect our land, and we protect the trees. We give no free releases to imposters from the sky. The purple ones cannot be shown weakness, or this planet would be lost to them; our forests burned down and my people killed.” 

Kreank was working himself up, strutting around the bowl, preaching to his people. His arms swung wide, gesticulating while he spoke, whistling through the air as they moved.  
“Ah, but despair not, Beetles! The Trauks have honor! We do not wish to be murderers like the purple ones. One of you will face one of mine, and if by some miracle you succeed, I will allow you to vacate my planet. But you will leave knowing that I could have killed you, all of you, at any moment, and it is only by my mercy that I allow you to prove yourself worthy of saving!”

The Trauks paused in his monologue, breathing hard with eyes full of excitement. His people roared for him, and it sounded like hundreds of trees cracking and popping into splinters. Pidge started to struggle against her bonds, if only so that she could pull off her helmet and plug her ears against the hellish cacophony.

She felt something bump into her shoulder and she squirmed away, assuming it was the Trauks behind her trying to stop her from moving. But when she opened her eyes, it was Lance, not an alien. He had sidled over to her while his Trauks was occupied with Kreank’s rallying of his people. Pidge looked at him, searching his eyes, but it didn’t seem like Lance was trying to carry out any sort of plan. He was just there because she looked scared, hell she was scared, and he wanted to be next to her. She leaned her side against him and his helmet knocked gently against hers. 

“It’ll be fine, Pidge. We got this. Shiro wasn’t called Champion for nothing,” He whispered to her. His usual bravado was evident even in whisper form, but there was a slight tremble hanging on the end of his sentence. He was frightened, too.

“Who will fight for my people?” Kreank roared. The crowd of Trauks bellowed in answer. More and more aliens were entering into the area surrounding the crude arena, screeching and calling out to their leader as they did.

“This isn’t honor,” Pidge heard Keith spit, “This is just a pathetic excuse for bloodlust.”

Then, Pidge actually felt her stomach drop as a Trauks pushed its way forward, out of the throngs of gleeful aliens. She recognized this one.

“I will destroy the Beetles and bring safety to my planet once more.” The alien lifted his head and scanned over the paladins. His one silvery eye narrowed when it landed on Pidge. The other eye was a smoking crater the shape of the tip of Pidge’s bayard. He was one of the aliens involved in their initial capture. In the short fight, Pidge managed to carve out his eye with a crackling jolt from her bayard before being slammed to the ground and subdued. 

“Tretch! Your bravery will reap you great rewards,” Kreank practically purred. He was taller and thicker then Tretch, but the smaller alien still dwarfed Pidge by at least three feet and four hundred pounds of weird tree branch muscle. 

It seemed like the other paladins still didn’t realize what was about to happen. Pidge was frozen with dread, but Shiro was still stepping forward like he was about to fight. They didn’t recognize Tretch, or understand the significance of his hungry glare trained on Pidge’s face. Pidge gulped in a big breath of air, trying to steel herself. It didn’t work; her kneecaps felt like they were made of jelly.

It wasn’t that she was scared to fight. She’d fought outside of Green before, she’d even taken on Sendak for fuck’s sake… But in this situation, with the lives of her team resting so purposefully on her shoulders, Pidge was starting to get heart palpitations. This was so clearly a staged, bloodthirsty fight that it almost didn’t seem real. The arena, the howling audience, it was all so absurd that Pidge found herself dissociating just to put some distance between her mind and the situation. In fact, she was so busy staring into the reflections in the shallow water in the basin of the arena and trying to do some deep breathing exercises that she completely missed the reveal.

It was Lance making a choking noise next to her ear that made her head finally snap up to see Tretch pointing a long, sharp claw directly at her.

“I will fight the Green Beetle.”

The declaration seemed to set off her fellow paladins like a chain of lit firecrackers. First it was Lance, who dove in front of her as though Tretch was already swinging. He did his best to shove her behind him, even with his hands still bound, but the Trauks in charge of him easily grabbed him and dragged Lance back into place.

“I’ll kill you! I’ll rip your fucking head off!” Lance shrieked, so loud and filled with fury the alien actually rocked back on its heels before it regained its bearings and backhanded Lance so hard that the plating on his helmet cracked.

Next Pidge’s eyes met Hunk, who stood frozen and silent. His normally dark skin looked ashen in the grey light filtering down through the trees. She didn’t hear anything over the din of the arena but she thought she saw his lips form a small ‘no.’

One Trauks had Keith in a headlock while another tried to grab his kicking, dangerous feet. He was bellowing so hard that his face matched the color of his armor. He wasn’t actually saying any words that Pidge could discern but the sheer force of his voice and his flailing kicks were giving both aliens a hard time.

Over all of the noise and commotion was the spitting and hissing of Shiro’s metal arm. He’d managed to tear away from his guard and was fighting furiously to stay free. Every time he moved, water splashed up against the glow of his purple hand and boiled off with a crackle and puff of steam. He didn’t have a chance. The bindings were still in place, effectively hog tying his arm and rendering it useless, so he was trying to defend with only his legs. He disappeared from Pidge’s view behind a wall of Trauks and when they backed off, he was on his stomach, subdued and bleeding from his split open chin.

Pidge was honestly taken aback by utter emotional tsunami of protection and fury that her teammates were expelling. On one hand, yeah, it was nice to be loved- her friends obviously did not want her getting hurt, but on the other, she wasn’t sure that they would be having the same reaction if Keith had been chosen. Or Lance. Or even Hunk. They had outright expected Shiro to be the one fighting and nobody had seemed to worried about that. But god forbid Pidge be the one to get beat on by one of these wooden assholes.

Did they not think she could win? Were they scared for their own survival as much as they were worried about her?

But, Pidge’s conflicting emotions would have to be sorted out later because Kreank was striding towards her with a look of excitement. He seemed unfazed by the reactions of the other paladins and ignored them in favor of clapping a giant hand on Tretch’s shoulder.

“Interesting choice, my fighter! But ah, I suppose this must be the one that took your eye?”

Tretch was still glowering at Pidge, but he broke his creepy line of sight for a moment to nod in affirmation at Kreank’s question.

“I will regain my honor, though it is too late for my eye,” Tretch growled.

Pidge yelped out a slightly hysterical laugh, which was odd enough to silence the entire arena, paladins and aliens alike. The feeling of hundreds of eyes staring at her was enough to shut up her uncontrollable giggles and for a second she and the entirety of the crowd just blinked at each other.

“What? Do you guys not have Avatar the Last Airbender here? Zuko and his honor? He’s even got the eye thing going on too! Nobody?”

Lance let out a laugh that sounded pretty strangled, but Pidge clung to it. Weirding everyone out into an awkward silence was better than everyone flailing around and getting themselves hurt on her behalf. She spun towards Lance and tried to shoot him a finger gun, but was unfortunately shut down by her hand bindings. 

“Dammnit! Whatever- Thank you for having my back, Lance,” She said. Before anyone else could speak up or start yelling and chanting again Pidge turned to Kreank and said,

“Fine with me, I’ll fight. But, I want my bayard. You guys are ginormous and I’m pretty defenseless down here. It won’t be that fun to watch if you make me fight without it.” She was trying for a flippant, unaffected tone but it sounded a little thin to her ears. Whatever, fake it till you make it.

“Bayard? Oh, your tiny alien toy? Tretch, is this agreeable for you? I can’t imagine giving the smallest of the Beetles an even smaller weapon would give you any cause for concern,” Kreank said with narrowed eyes. 

This guy (alien? tree?) was a manipulator, Pidge realized. Even if Tretch didn’t want to face her bayard again, Kreank had backed him into a corner that he couldn’t get out without looking like a coward. Pidge’s earlier comment must have convinced the giant alien; he wanted to watch a fight, not an execution. His strange fervor to put on a good show was playing into her favor.

Tretch’s lip, or what Pidge thought was his lip, curled up in a sneer, but he jerked his chin at Pidge’s guard, who sliced through her bindings and shoved her bayard into her hands.

“Sweet,” Pidge chirped, “Thanks buddy!” She spun the bayard around her fingers and shot Tretch a wink. He didn’t seem to enjoy it.

Pidge turned towards her friends, all of whom were now still. Keith and Shiro had been beaten into submission, and Hunk too miserable to move. Lance was on his toes and quivering, but there was nothing he could do. Nothing any of them could do, and they all knew it.

“No worries, guys. I got this.” Pidge tried to throw all of her false bluster into a reassurance for her team. She caught Shiro’s eye and he still looked panicked and very, very sweaty, but gave her a nod reminiscent of the day she met Green. One that said, _‘Go, be great.’_

Well, maybe it was more of a _‘I’m sorry, I tried I’m sorry please don’t die,'_ but eh, tomatoe tomato. 

Kreank swung his great arms out to his sides and the crowd parted instantly for him. Then it was just Pidge and Tretch still standing in the crude basin of the arena.

Pidge swung her bayard around her fingers one more time and then reached into her gut for the feeling of connection that would activate the weapon. It was like a tiny light switch inside of her that was effortless to flick on and off; one that she never knew existed until she needed it.

Her bayard powered up with a hum and a flash of green and Pidge saw Tretch’s remaining eye twitch all the way across the arena. 

She straightened up to her full height, which was not tall, but damn it Pidge was going to work with it, and settled her shoulders back. She sucked in a deep breath through her nose and let it out through her mouth. Or was it supposed to be the other way around, mouth then nose? Hm. She’d have to think on that more later. If she survived.

But, Pidge knew she was strong. She was something to be feared, and she would not lose this fight. She refused.

\- - - - - - - - - - - 

Lance recognized the humor and the chest puffing Pidge was throwing out. After all, he was the master of pretending to be awesome until you eventually became awesome (hopefully). The thought that Pidge may have been adopting some of his tendencies might have tickled him in a different situation. But right now, they were marooned on very damp planet with murderous Grandmother Willow look-alikes and it ruined Lance’s potential heart warming moment. Fuckers.

Kreank silenced the crowd one last time and bellowed, “There are no rules! We will know when the fight is over.” The alien ended his statement with a smirk, or as much of a smirk a dude made of wood could do. Kreank had a mean streak a mile long and Lance was pretty sure everyone knew it. All that bullshit about protecting their planet; Lance was halfway convinced they were just bored of sitting in the woods all day and wanted some entertainment.

Pidge didn’t wait for any sort of signal to start; she just took off towards Tretch at as much of a sprint as she could manage. The water in the lowest point of the arena was up to her mid-shin and the mud on the edges was slippery. The aliens’ thick legs and root-like toes were made to keep a solid purchase in the slippery of their planet, but Pidge seemed to realize before Lance that this also made them slow.

Pidge wasn’t physically stronger than any being on this planet, human or otherwise, but there was a good chance she was the faster. Maybe Keith could outrun her on a good day but he wasn’t quite as agile, and Pidge wasn’t hesitating to show off her skills. She dashed up to Tretch, ducked onto her knees to slide under the first heavy swing of his left arm and then kept going through the wide space between his legs.

She popped up behind him and swung her bayard in a flashing arc that sliced through the thick ropey branches along the back of Tretch’s knee like they were made of butter. The bayard must have hissed as it cut through but Lance didn’t hear anything except the creaking screech that the alien let out. He crashed down onto his injured knee for a second, but forced himself back up to spin and make another grab at Pidge. Lance’s heart jumped into his throat but the alien’s fingers missed Pidge by a fraction as an inch as she used the jets on her armor to shoot herself out of reach. 

Pidge touched down about ten feet away from Tretch but the slick ground caused her to overbalance and fall with a splash. The spectator aliens sensed that Tretch had an opening and started to howl his name. Lance also heard Keith and Hunk shouting encouragements at Pidge, but over all the din, it was Shiro’s voice that was the clearest.

“Matt! MATT!”

Shiro’s eyes were wide and frantic but slightly unfocused. Keith was the closest to Shiro and he turned to strain towards him against the tight grip of his captor.

“Shiro? Shiro, what’s wrong?” Keith sounded scared. Lance hadn’t ever really heard Keith’s voice when he was scared before and he decided right away that he didn’t like it. At all.

“He must be having a flashback!” Lance called to Keith, shouting to make himself heard over the collective noise of everyone else jammed into the clearing. It made sense, in a horrible way. Lance never heard the whole story from Shiro himself but from what he gathered, Shiro had sacrificed himself in some way to save Pidge’s brother from the arena during the year that he was with the Galra. This was an eerily similar situation, but this time Shiro hadn’t managed to put himself in place of a Holt sibling. His helplessness must have triggered something in his memories.

“Shiro, it’s okay, you-”

“PIDGE!” Lance’s voice cut off when he heard Hunk roar and he snapped his attention back to the fight. Tretch had Pidge grasped in one of his great hands and was pressing her down hard into the ground. Only the curved back of her armor was above the surface of the murky water but he could see the frothing of the water as she splashed in panic. 

“No!” Lance wasn’t sure which one of them yelled, but it didn’t matter. Tretch just pressed down harder. He started to panic and strain against his bonds. If only he could just get free of the giant hand and the ties holding his wrists, he could pull her back up, keep her from being crushed, keep her alive. He struggled hard and the Trauks behind him snarled and yanked him backwards. He fell hard on his ass but scrabbled back to his feet as fast as he could without the use of his hands. Lance felt panic claw its way up into his chest. Pidge couldn’t die, she couldn’t, she was his teammate his friend his family she had people waiting for her back on earth she had loved ones she still needed to save she was part of the small handful of people he had left she couldn’t – CRACK.

Lance gagged and turned his head away. He couldn’t look. He didn’t want to see Pidge’s broken body float to the surface. There was a shuffling wet sound as Hunk stumbled over to him and Lance felt his helmet knock against his own before the alien holding Hunk dragged him back into place.

He had gotten Lance’s attention though so Lance heard him this time when he yelled, “Lance, look, it’s okay Lance, just look!” Hunk was Lance’s best friend in the universe. Lance trusted him with his life and so even though he absolutely did not want to look, he glanced up just in time to see Pidge propel herself backwards out from under Tretch’s hand and rise out of the shattered remains of her armor like some sort of muddy phoenix. A wordless yell of triumph split from Lance’s lips. The cracking of her back plate must have given her enough wiggle room to pull out of her helmet and free herself. 

Pidge threw herself backwards, trying to put as much distance between herself and her attacker as she could but she wasn’t able to scramble away fast enough and Tretch caught her with another devastating blow. But, as he made contact, she managed to flip slightly out of his path so that his long finger-claws scooped underneath her instead of crushing into her chest. She was thrown clear across the arena and slammed into a tree trunk high on the lip of the basin.

Lance could tell Pidge was tiring; what was left of her chest plate was heaving, but she pulled herself back up to her feet easily enough so that he hoped she hadn’t broken anything on impact.

Instead of sliding back down to Tretch, Pidge surprised him by scrambling her way up the tree she’d just been thrown into. The gnarled branches gave her an easy pathway up to the top and she flew up them quicker than Lance thought possible. 

Tretch stood panting halfway down the slope but didn’t try and pursue her. Lance realized that he wasn’t bearing any weight on the leg that Pidge had hit with her bayard. She must’ve severed the tendons that allowed him to walk on that side.

“Get his other leg, Pidge!” He yelled up to her. She was on the opposite face of the arena than he was but she made a dismissive gesture at him so he knew she’d heard.

“More worried about his arms!” She called back.

Lance didn’t have time to answer before she morphed her bayard into its grappling form, which was badass by the way, why couldn’t his do that, and shot it over Tretch’s head to a tree closer to Lance. She leapt off her own tree and sailed over his head. Halfway across, she released the bayard from the first tree and shot it into one near Shiro. Her path changed into a swooping arc towards Tretch’s injured side and he struggled to turn fast enough to keep up with her.

Fortunately, a boost from the one intact jet Pidge had left gave her the edge, and by the time he was facing her again, her feet were planted on his chest and her bayard was stabbing deep into his armpit. As Tretch stumbled backwards with the force of her impact, Pidge ignited her bayard with a sickening green flash and yanked upwards. The tip of the blade broke through the back of his shoulder blade with a crunch and Pidge yanked it up and back towards herself so that it carved forward all the way through what would be a collarbone on a human. It only lasted a second but when she was finished Tretch’s left arm was only attached by a few lingering branch-tendons near the bottom of his shoulder. 

On the sideline, Kreank screeched so loud Lance flinched, but it took a moment before he realized that it was a screech of glee instead of one of anger at his soldier being dismembered. He threw back his great head in excitement and laughed. Hunk was watching him too, and Lance saw him pale even further at the spectacle.

But, Lance didn’t have time to worry about the leader of the Traukss being literally insane. Pidge had a fight to finish and he’d be damned if he was going to turn away again. 

He owed it to her to watch, she was fighting for all of their lives after all and honestly, she was impressing the hell out of him. Back on the Castle, she usually used her free time to tinker with various bits of alien technology instead of sparring and tended to only participate in group drills that Shiro and Allura made mandatory. So, Lance didn’t get to see Pidge in hand to hand combat action very often but as it turned out, she kicked major ass. 

In retrospect, he shouldn’t be all that surprised because he knew just how ruthless she could be in a tense situation. They’d been on more than a few missions together and he was pretty sure he still occasionally felt tingles from where she’d zapped him with her bayard on one of their first days in the Castle. She just wasn’t the person who first came to mind when Lance thought of physical strength and combat skill. That would be Shiro, and probably Keith after that but watching now, Lance was forced to reassess his bias.

Just because she was smaller and younger than the other paladins didn’t seem to be holding Pidge back at all. She was wreaking absolute havoc with her tiny melee weapon. Allura chose well when she made her the Green Paladin.

Tretch still had two working limbs but for the moment he seemed to be paralyzed by the pain that came from having his arm nearly sawed off. He collapsed to his knees with a giant splash and instead of springing away from him like she had earlier, Pidge wrapped her left arm around his head for purchase, dug her heels into his chest, and pressed her glowing blade tight underneath Tretch’s jaw. 

The cacophony of the arena faded into a haunting silence as the aliens realized what position the fighters were in. After a second, the only thing Lance could hear was Shiro’s panicky breathing and the dangerous hum of Pidge’s bayard.

“Surrender.”

Pidge’s voice was dangerously low and it sent a shiver of pride through Lance. Her tawny hair was sopping wet and spread across her shoulders. It was a lot longer than it was when Lance first met Pidge at the Garrison. Her wet curls were dripping down into her golden eyes but she didn’t once break her gaze from Tretch’s last remaining eye. Lance couldn’t help but be reminded of an earth lioness he’d seen once in a documentary crouching over a zebra with her strong jaws clamped around its neck, slowly choking away its life.

Once again Kreank’s sadistic laugh rang out over the clearing and Lance felt a strong urge to shove his fist straight down the alien’s throat. 

“Surrender? There is no surrender! I told you we would know when the fight is over and this fight is not over!”  
Lance’s stomach dropped for what seemed to be at least the fifth time that day. 

“What do you mean? I’m not going to kill him!” Pidge said. Her voice sounded shrill compared to the deep creaking of Kreank’s and Lance could tell she was on the edge of freaking out.

“We fight to the death on my planet. So, if you will not kill him, he will have to kill you. That is how it works.” Kreank wasn’t even trying to hide his grin. This extra excitement added a bit of unexpected drama to his show.

“You said no rules!” Keith shouted. Lance nodded his head vigorously, inclined just this once to agree with the red paladin. “Yeah man, you definitely said that. We were all here.”

Murmurs started to spread through the onlookers and Kreank’s smile thinned. “Shut your mouth, Beetles! This is my planet and I say KILL!” The other aliens paused in their questioning, then began to cheer along with their leader once more. “Kill! Kill! Kill!”

\-----------------

Kill. The reverberation from Kreank’s bellow was still echoing in her chest. Pidge did not want to kill anyone. Even this stupid tree trunk that’d tried to drown her. Visions of the Galra soldier she and Rover killed in the Castle months ago still crept into her dreams every once in awhile. She broke her gaze with Tretch and turned to plead once more with Kreank but before she could even open her mouth Tretch made his move.

It felt like she was perched on a fault line during a category ten earthquake. Tretch used the last of his strength to heave himself upwards and fling Pidge into the air as he did so. Her bayard carved a shallow slice out of his neck as she was dislodged but it wasn’t enough to incapacitate him. 

She was as useless in the open air as she was underwater and all Pidge could do was watch as his only intact arm whistled towards her. When it struck, it was from above, and his claws slashed a path from her upper left arm all the way down to her right hip. 

At first, she thought her chest plate took all the damage, because there was no pain, only a strange tugging feeling, but when she hit the ground and broke through the surface of the watery sludge, she heard Hunk screaming and Shiro yelling her brother’s name over and over again. His eyes were fixed on her stomach and when she looked down there were bits of pink flesh poking through her armor and black undersuit. She moved a finger to try and poke one flap back inside of her where it belonged but her arm didn’t respond right. It was sluggish and sent more weird tugging sensations down the left side of her chest.

There was something else she should be paying attention to, but she couldn’t-

“PIDGE! PIDGE!”

She snapped her head up at the sound of Lance’s voice. Oh yeah, she was fighting. Who was she fighting? She stumbled slightly as she turned around but what she saw broke through the strange fog in her head. Tretch was on all fours, clawing his way towards her through the mud. He was bellowing something too, but Pidge couldn’t bring herself to figure out what it was.

She had to move, she had to do something, so Pidge morphed her bayard into its grappling form and flung it into Tretch’s face. It embedded itself deep into the side of his head with a thunk and she ducked out of the way just as he lurched past her. He was unable to move very fast but Pidge still struggled as she darted behind him, wrapping the glowing cord around his head. It felt like she was moving through water that was chest deep, not just up to her shins. Tiny pricks of fire were starting to spark at her stomach and chest but she pushed away the sensations. No time.

Tretch was roaring and clawing at the rope and she sent a jolt of electricity through it to keep him from pulling it off his face. He jerked and then sagged with a groan. She used his momentary stillness to toss her handle end up towards a high branch that made up part of the tangled ceiling of the arena. Some cosmic force must have been on her side in this battle because it looped over the branch on her first try and fell down to dangle only a few feet above her head. 

Pain was leaking into her now. It started pulsing so hard in in her ears that she couldn’t hear anything other than her own heartbeat. Pidge gasped in a breath and summoned the last reserves of her strength. She crouched and then sprang straight upwards. Her left arm wasn’t responding at all anymore, so she caught the handle of her bayard with only her right hand. As her weight plummeted back down to the ground, she sent another wave of electricity through the line, the strongest the weapon could handle. The cord sung with energy and then snapped taught as Pidge reached the end of the loose rope. The force of the current and her entire mass snapped the cord back towards her, yanking Tretch’s head around, farther than it should go, then it could go, and then there was an awful snap.

Tretch went limp and slumped forward into the water with a soft splash.

Kill. Kill, Kill, Kill. Well, Pidge did it. She killed him.

She staggered and then fell to her knees next to Tretch’s body. Pidge wrapped her right arm tightly around her abdomen, trying to hold in the throbbing, burning.

There was a commotion up on the rim of the basin and Kreank said something, but she couldn’t focus enough to actually hear him. Was she dying, too? Pidge didn’t know what dying felt like. She’d never felt like this before, though. It was as if Tretch had sliced her open and turned her inside out and nerve endings that were never supposed to be exposed were now soaked in mud.

Her stomach clenched and she bent over to vomit into the filth. Was the water red before? Pidge couldn’t remember. Everything looked sort of red now. She was scared. She wanted her mom.

\----------------

“She won! Let me go, let me go let me go let me go!” Lance was frantic, spinning in circles, facing his captor, then Kreank, then back to his captor. He thrust his bound hands at them, pleading to be released. 

Pidge had collapsed onto her side in the bottom of the arena a moment ago. Lance couldn’t tell if her face was above water.

Keith panted next to him, high and upset. Kreank was taking his sweet time to give the order for their release and Keith finally cried out in frustration then hurtled down the side of the basin with his hands still tied. He slipped in the muck and fell hard but scrambled to his feet and staggered over to Pidge. Lance watched as he dropped again to his stomach and tried to use his shoulder to prop her head above the waterline.

Hunk was pleading next to him, “Please, let us go. She proved herself, she did everything you asked. You said you’d let us leave. Please.”

Kreank’s eyes were narrowed but after a second he nodded, “Very well. I suppose you have proven yourselves worthy, Beetles, or at least the green one put on a decent performance. A pity she will die as well.” The smirk on his face belied his concern. “I will allow you to leave this planet and never return,” he turned to the paladins’ captors and said, “Release them.”

Claws cut Lance’s bonds and as soon as he was free he lurched towards Keith and Pidge. Hunk slid down next to him and they reached them at the same time. Lance scooped Pidge up out of the water and into his arms and Hunk wrapped an arm around Keith’s chest to lift him up onto his knees.

“It’s okay, Keith, Lance has her. You did well, she’s still breathing. Hold still, let me undo these,” Hunk soothed, trying to keep Keith still long enough to loosen the knots.

“Matt? Is, is he okay?” Shiro’s voice cracked and Lance looked away from Pidge’s face long enough to glance at the older boy. Shiro was pale and soaked with sweat. His eyes looked a little clearer but his arm was still glowing and his gaze was jumping from Pidge to Lance then to the aliens that were beginning to filter out of the clearing.

“It’s not Matt, Shiro. It’s Pidge, his sister. We’ve got to get her out of here, though. Don’t let any of those aliens come near us,” Lance commanded. Shiro still looked unsure of just exactly what was real but he nodded, glad to be given a job. He put his back to them and widened his stance, ready to defend the second anything made a move towards them.

Lance cradled Pidge tight to his chest as Hunk grabbed him under his armpits and lifted both of their combined weights up to a standing position. She was still breathing, Hunk had told Keith the truth, but her wounds were horrendous. Three of Tretch’s claws had dug deep enough to carve devastating furrows diagonally across Pidge’s chest and abdomen. Her armor protected her a little bit; the wounds on her chest seemed shallow, but her arm was bleeding steadily were his fourth claw caught it and the tears across her abdomen were deep. He could feel her blood already seeping into his suit. Bits of intestines were poking through several spots in gouges in her stomach.

The image of his friend with her literal organs spilling out into the open air overwhelmed him, and Lance gagged again, hard. Keith stepped up next to him, “Do you need me to carry her?”

Lance sucked in a deep breath and tipped his head back to gather himself before shaking his head, “No. No, I’m okay. Can you just, can you put them back inside? We need to go.” Keith looked down at his hands, which were covered in mud and water just like every other bit of the rest of them. But, she’d already been underwater, it wasn’t going to make any difference now.

Keith gently tucked the bits of flesh and guts back inside the wounds as well as he could and Hunk appeared next to him to hand over his head scarf. “Here, wrap this around her. It won’t do much, but at least they wont be… open.”

“Hey, beach is this way. We have to hurry.” Shiro pointed in the direction they came. He looked a little more present, like he finally knew what was happening, though his hands were still trembling. “Keith, help me with the branches,” Shiro said and Keith nodded, seemingly glad for the excuse to let Hunk finish tying up Pidge’s stomach on his own. When he was done, Hunk quickly waded around Tretch’s body to scoop up Pidge’s helmet and the remains of her back plate and then followed Lance out of the arena.

Lance alternated between looking at Pidge’s face and at Keith’s heels so that he didn’t trip and hurt her even more than she already was. Her hair was plastered to her cheek and Lance fought the urge to stop and brush it away. Pidge had normally pale skin, something Lance usually loved to needle her about (“did you finally crawl out of your murky tech cave you tiny space gremlin?” “Go fuck yourself, Slim Jim.”) but now she looked almost grey. That and the way she was lying so completely still in Lance’s arms contrasted hugely with how full of life she’d been only a few minutes ago. The image of her as deadly predator was a distant thought that Lance couldn’t seem to rectify with limp body he was clutching.

“Pidge? Please wake up. Please. We’re heading to the beach and Green is waiting for you and we’re going to fly out of here and never come back. I promise everything is going to be okay.” 

She didn’t move, but Lance focused on her long enough to make sure she was still breathing. Then he thought ‘fuck it’ and freed up one hand to carefully brush her hair off her face and tuck it behind one of her ears. She looked strange with neither her glasses or her helmet on.

Up ahead, Keith and Shiro started cutting a channel through the forest faster than Lance thought possible. Paladin sword and Galra tech worked together to free a path for Lance to jog behind them. Hunk brought up the rear, hefting his bayard and constantly looking backwards to make sure nothing was following them.

“Hunk, try reaching Allura on your com again,” Lance said. He was already out of breath; the terrain was incredibly rough and even though Pidge was small, she wasn’t weightless.

“I’ve been trying! Since we were caught, I’ve been trying. The funky atmosphere around this awful planet shorted out the communications in our helmets when we entered. I haven’t heard anything since then,” Hunk wheezed over the hiss and snap of branches being severed and thrown aside. 

“Damnit! Fuck!” Lance clutched Pidge tighter in his frustration and she let out a small whine of pain. Lance didn’t break stride, they couldn’t afford to slow down, but he patted gently at her face. “Pidge? You there buddy?”

“Dun touch me,” she slurred, trying to turn head away.

“Pidge you have to try and stay awake for me. You’re going to be fine but you have to stay awake.”

To his surprise she let out a weak laugh, “Shiro’s always telling me to go to sleep. Now you want me to stay awake.”

Shiro turned at the sound of his name, “Permission to stay awake, Pidge. We’ve got you, everything is okay.”

Pidge turned and nudged her nose against Lance’s chest. “I know. You guys would never let something bad happen to me.”

Lance felt tears prick insistently at his eyes. Pidge was clearly out of it, but she obviously trusted them completely, and they’d let her down. Something bad had happened to her and there was a very good chance she was going to bleed out before they got to the Lions.

A tear dripped onto Pidge’s chest and she struggled to look up at him. “Hey Lance, don’t be sad. It’s all good,” She looked back down at her chest and tried to paw at it with her hand. Lance pushed it gently away. “No touching.”

Pidge blinked up at him. Her eyes normally crackled with an electric intelligence but now they were glassy and hooded. She lost focus and looked down at herself again. “Keith, hey Keith,” she mumbled, “Look I’m the Red Paladin now!” She gestured feebly to her bloody body and Keith choked. He staggered to a stop and gazed at Pidge in horror.

“Don’t say that!” He yelped. Shiro paused in his trailblazing and grabbed his shoulder to spin him around. “Keith, she doesn’t even know what she’s saying. Keep cutting, we have to get to the Lions.”

Pidge seemed to forget about Keith after a moment and she started whimpering again. “Ow, ow, Lance. Please stop running, it hurts.” Lance squeezed his eyes shut and choked down a sob. “I’m sorry, Pidge. I’m so sorry but we have to keep going.”

She was bleeding so much. He could see the awful red streaks dripping all the way down to his shins. Lance shifted her weight fully into the cradle of his left arm and started applying pressure to her stomach wounds with his right. This just made her cry out louder and struggle feebly against him.

“Here Lance, let me take her for a little bit,” Hunk said, jogging up alongside him. He offered his big arms, but a call from Shiro up ahead interrupted him.

“No, we need you up here Hunk!” They’d hacked their way into a narrow ravine in an attempt to avoid as much foliage as they could but a colossal fallen tree was blocking the way up ahead. Lance thought of using his jetpack, but they were getting close to the beach and the tangled branches overhead were pressing down on them. There was literally only a foot or two of clearance above Lance’s head and it wasn’t enough room to fly over the trunk. They were going to have to backtrack to the mouth of the ravine and go back around, at least a fifteen-minute mistake.

“No, we are not going back,” Hunk growled, seemingly in answer to the same train of thought running through his own head, and stepped forward.

The trunk had to be at least as thick around as Hunk himself and to Lance it looked like there was no way a human could lift it, but Hunk didn’t hesitate. He squatted down, wedged his shoulder under the trunk and then lifted. His muscles bulged and his mouth opened in a silent yell as the trunk shuddered, then started to shift, inch by inch. Once he’d created enough space underneath, Shiro shoved his own shoulder under and started to help as well. The Galra arm whizzed and popped with the strain. With the extra few inches, Keith managed to get his hands in and he groaned as the three of them hefted the trunk up, up up.

“Lance, now!” Shiro strained out and Lance didn’t waste any time. He hit his knees and squeezed under the trunk in the gap they’d created for him and Pidge. She moaned as her back scraped the ground but then they were through and Lance hefted her up into a more comfortable position. Keith struggled under and began to lift again from the other side, allowing Shiro and then Hunk to squeeze through and finally drop the trunk with a splash that crashed higher than his head. Hunk was keening softly and holding his shoulder but Shiro nudged them all forward and they started moving again towards the beach and the Lions.

“Almost there, Pidge. Stay with me.”

\----------------

For as light footed as Lance usually was, right now his gait felt like they’d been thrown into a wash machine full of rocks. Pidge tried to remember a time before pain but couldn’t. There was no before there was only a red-tinged, excruciating now.

Her insides were leaking out of her. There was nothing solid left, just agony in liquid form flowing out over Lance’s arms and leaking down his chest. She tried to hold on to herself but it was like cupping a river in too-small hands.

She didn’t know where she was or how far they had left to go but all she could see was branches and occasionally the lifeless grey sky flitting in between open patches. Funny, for the supposed Guardian of the Forest she really starting to fucking hate trees. She was supposed to protect places like this but she couldn’t even protect herself. She was only strong when she was flying and to do that she needed-

_-isten to me, Small One!_  
It was like a connection had been suddenly snapped into place, a circuit completed, a bulb screwed in. Like Green had been speaking to her all this time but she only now finally tapped into the current. For a moment there was more inside of her than just pain.

“Small One? Who you callin’ small?” She mumbled, elated.

She could feel Green’s confusion as clear as if she was inside her cockpit. The mental image of Green cocking her head made her giggle, then choke as the motion caused agony to crash over her again.

_Hush, Small One. There is nothing wrong with being small. It is simply what you are. What you do, however, can be as big as you can imagine._

“You sound like a fortune cookie,” She rasped out. It was so good to finally hear her voice. It higher than she thought it would be, and rougher. Like the sandpaper of a cat licking her palm.

“Pidge, what are you talking about? What’s wrong?” She could tell Lance was scared by how high his voice was, but she couldn’t really see him anymore. He was just a blur somewhere above her. Green was much clearer.

“I think I’m dying.”

“No! You’re fine, I promise. We’re almost to the beach!” Pidge tried to wave him away but, oh yeah, her arm apparently stopped being an arm a long time ago.

_You will not pass on. You are my paladin and I waited long enough for you to come. I will not wait again._

Then, the pain shuddered and… fell. It was a tidal wave that hit an immovable wall. Dropped down into a completely still surface. Not even a ripple.

Pidge hummed and let her head drop back against Lance’s arm. She felt Green move with her, or was her or she was Green and they were one. Stillness filled her and edged out the rest.

“Guys? Pidge is acting weird. I dunno what’s wrong,” Lance panted. He sounded exhausted; he’d been carrying her for a long time. Pidge found herself impressed and she strained upwards and nuzzled the crown of her head against his jaw. “Good job, man.”

“W-What? Pidge what are you-”

Shiro’s voice interrupted him. Or was it Black? Pidge couldn’t tell. “It’s Green. I can feel her quintessence alongside Pidge’s. I can hear Black, too.”

“We’re here!” Keith’s voice rang out in triumph. “Oh thank god,” Hunk huffed. His bayard was still in it’s cannon form. That thing must weigh at least as much as she did. She tried to sit up, to let Hunk know he was doing so well but Green pressed down on her mind.

_Stay still, Small One._

Pidge nodded and slumped back into the crook of Lance’s elbow. There was still one thing she had to say, though.

“Shiro, come here. Shiro!” She felt like she was calling rather loudly but her voice barely registered as a whisper.

Lance heard, though and grabbed Shiro’s arm.

“Pidge, we’ve got to get you loaded up. What’s wrong?”

Pidge fought the urge to reply with ‘besides the obvious?’ and instead gestured with her chin for him to lean in closer.

“Shiro, promise you’ll keep trying to find Matt and Dad.” She felt Lance’s arms stiffen around her but she ignored him. Shiro’s blurry face blanched but when he opened his mouth she cut him off, “Promise!”

“Pidge, we’re going to find them together-”

“Shiro.”

Lance whimpered above her but she kept her eyes trained on the impression that felt like Black. Green was nudging at her consciousness, telling her to board but she resisted.

“No matter what, I will find them and bring them home. I promise, Pidge.” Shiro’s voice was strong and solid, just like she knew him best to be. It made her feel better. Everything was taken care of.

\-----------

Pidge’s head dropped back and her eyes rolled up her head with a sickening white flash. Lance cried out and summoned the last of his strength to burst out of the stupid fucking trees and onto the white sand. Shiro flew past him with Keith on his heels. Lance felt as well as heard Black’s engines roar to life but he was more concerned with getting to Green. 

He didn’t have to worry too much because suddenly his whole field of vision was green and windy. The force of Green hurtling towards him in a sliding landing nearly bowled him over, and Lance was pretty sure it was only sheer force of will at that point that kept him moving forward. He vaulted into Green’s awaiting mouth and immediately slipped and fell on his ass. His entire suit was sodden with Pidge’s blood and every surface on him felt slimy.

Green’s snarl was so loud from inside the cabin that if Lance wasn’t clutching onto Pidge he would’ve clapped his hands over his ears.

“Sorry! Sorry!” He winced at the sound of his own voice. It was shrill and on the verge of panic. God, he felt like he’d been on the verge of panic for the last hour and a half, at least. 

Lance slid his way over to the pilot seat and strapped a belt around him and Pidge. He felt Green dip her head again and Hunk vaulted into the cockpit. Lance didn’t even have time to reach a hand out to him before Green sprang into the air. The incredible force of her takeoff pushed him back into the seat and he wrapped his arm around Pidge’s head, trying to keep her steady. Hunk tumbled past him and smacked into the back wall with an ‘oof!’

Green reached full speed and as soon as the acceleration slowed Lance turned in his seat, “Hunk! You okay, man?” Hunk was sitting in a heap against the back wall but he gave him a weak wave. He was clutching at his shoulder again and made no move other than to give Lance a wobbly smile that looked about as far from happy as a smile could be.

“Don’t worry about me, I think I tore something in my shoulder earlier when I lifted that tree. It’s nothing, though.”

Sheer exhaustion and helplessness hit Lance all at once. Hunk was hurt, Pidge was probably dying right now in his arms. He didn’t have anything left to do; Green was in control now and all they could do was wait until they reached the Castle. There was nothing he could do to help anyone.

Lance started to cry. Not just a few tears, like he had earlier, but full body sobs. He shuddered over Pidge, trying not to hold her too tight, or too loose so that she wasn’t supported. It was all he could do. It felt like a fist was wrapped around the base of his throat and he choked on his next sob and started to cough.

“Hey, Lance. It’s okay, buddy. Take deep breathes, you’re going to make yourself sick,” Hunk had crawled over to him and had his arm around Lance’s head, pressing his cheek into his own. Lance turned his face into Hunk’s and tried to squash down his cries.

“We didn’t do anything, Hunk! We just stood there and watched her get fucking drowned and squashed and torn up. We didn’t fucking h-help her,” His voice was quivering and hiccupping between heaves.

Hunk was crying too, Lance realized. His tears were soaking into Lance’s hair. He didn’t even remember taking his helmet off.

“Pidge is so strong, Lance. Didn’t you see her when she was chosen? She didn’t even hesitate. She fought to protect us and she won. Maybe next time it will be you, or me who has to step up. And hell, I hope I can do as well as she did. We couldn’t before, but we’re helping now and she’s almost home and she’s going to be okay.”

Lance shook his head, knocking his forehead into Hunk’s in the process, “She shouldn’t have had to do that! We should be at home, in school, screwing up simulations and sneaking to the mess hall after hours and cramming for tests. Pidge should be sitting next to us and calling us names and hitting me too hard when I throw pencils at her.” 

He glanced out the front view window. He could see the castle growing bigger in the distance. Green put on an extra burst of speed and Lance tried to support both Hunk and Pidge as they were pressed backwards into the seat.

Hunk didn’t answer until they were touching down in the loading hangar. “If we weren’t here, some other kids would be. Or worse, nobody would have found the Lions and every single being that we’ve helped and saved so far would be dead.” 

Lance trembled, not quite satisfied with his answer but not exactly untouched by it either. There was no more time to think of what ifs. He clutched Pidge to his chest and undid their buckle as Green lowered her head to the floor.

Coran was already sprinting around the corner, they’d been gone far too long and Coran and Allura must have sensed something was off. Lance stumbled out into the bright lights of the hanger and thrust Pidge into his arms. 

“Take her. She’s bleeding really bad; you have to get her into a cryo pod!”

Coran paused only a moment to press his fingers against Pidge’s pulse point. He gave a sharp nod to Lance, and Hunk behind him. “She’s alive. Well done, paladins.” With that, he turned on his heel and took off for the medical bay. Lance could hear him rattling off something to Allura on his com as he went.

It was only now that they were empty that Lance realized how much his arms hurt. They were cramped into the position he’d held Pidge in for so long and trying to straighten them made him moan in pain. The sound was mostly drowned out, though, by Black landing in the hangar. Keith barreled out of her mouth before she even had time to place it on the ground and Shiro had to grab his collar so he wouldn’t face plant.

“Coran has her,” Hunk said. His voice was tight with pain and Lance remembered him saying something about his shoulder being torn. Shiro had the same thought apparently because he nudged Hunk up to his feet and started steering him in the direction of the med bay.

Lance didn’t even register that everyone had left until Keith was poking his head back around the corner. “Lance, what are you doing? Come on!”

He just blinked up at Keith. He unconsciously brought his arms up, cradling a teammate that was no longer there. He looked down at his hollow hold and was greeted with the sight of smeared blood, bits of tissue, mud and god knows what else. He barked out a hysterical laugh.

“Guess you’ve got more competition for the Red paladin job.” 

Keith’s first instinct was to be angry, Lance could tell because of the way his brow furrowed but then it twitched up into concern. Lance clenched his fists, feeling the way the joints in his gloves stuck together. He was covered in gore. There was no way Pidge had that much blood in her. She must be drained dry, she had to be dead she was dead and Lance didn’t get her here in time oh god oh god-

“Lance, stop! She’s not dead!” Oh, he must have been saying that out loud. Strange.

Keith was hauling at him now, grabbing his shoulders and trying to heave him to his feet. When had he sat down? 

“Come on!” Keith was angry now, or frustrated. Lance didn’t want to Keith to be mad, so he allowed himself to be pulled up and pushed and prodded down the hallway. His ears were making a funny roaring noise. Like the way the ocean wavered inside a seashell. He missed the ocean. He missed his family. Pidge was his family, too and now she was dea-

“God damnit, Lance! She’s not dead! She’s right there, look!”

Lance looked. Pidge was upright in a pod, eyes closed and deathly pale. Small mechanical arms were snipping at her suit, removing it and starting to clean bits of mud out of her wounds. The cold temperature seemed to have slowed the bleeding and several arms looked like they were clamping things inside of her. Others were starting to pull out bits of organs and somehow stitch them back together. It wasn’t like human medicine. The pod seemed to be almost knitting her tissues without the use of any thread that Lance could see.

“Accelerated healing. Though they have extra work to do with the decontamination and re-structuring.”

Allura’s voice made him surprisingly emotional. She sounded so calm and in control; a huge juxtaposition to the strained, panicky voices he’d been hearing all day. He turned to look at her and caught sight of Hunk in another pod. Shiro was sitting between the pods and had tubing snaking from his arm into the back of Pidge’s pod.

“Same blood type,” He explained before Lance could ask. Nobody had bothered to wipe the dried blood off his chin from where it had been cut. Lance staggered over to him and tried to clean it with his thumb but he just managed to wipe even more gunk onto his face.

“I’m pretty sure he’s in shock,” Keith said from somewhere behind him. Stupid Keith, what did he know. Lance was just trying to help. Everyone was so bloody and gross and it made Lance’s stomach squirm. The roaring in his ears grew louder and he sat down hard before he could fall. That would be embarrassing.

“Here son, look at me.” Coran’s voice was soft and Lance liked it. He rolled his head to peer up at him and Coran studied his face.

“I would agree, Keith. Let’s just nip into this pod for a few minutes, eh Lance?” Before Lance could even comprehend what Coran was saying he was being stripped of his armor and gently pushed into a pod. It was only when the door started to close that he realized what was happening.

“Hey, no! I need to make sure Pidge is okay, no! Don’t, sto-”

\------------------------------

“Please let me braid your hair! It’s so long!”

“Lance, get off my bed. You’re going to aggravate my wounds,” Pidge drawled with a smirk. 

“Liar, Coran said you were okay!”

“Bed rest, Lance. Coran said at least a week of bed rest.” Shiro tugged him backwards off her bed by his collar. Pidge felt a twinge of guilt at the puppy dog eyes Lance was shooting her and sighed. “Oh alright. It’s fine, Shiro let him go.”

Lance whooped and clambered behind her. Shiro gently inserted a pillow behind her shoulders to prop her up against Lance. Her skin still felt funny but it didn’t hurt anymore. She hadn’t actually felt any pain since Green had spoken to her for the first time back in the forest.

“Okay, so my wounds may be fine but you guys have to check out my scars. I swear, the top one missed my nip by like centimeters-”

“Agh! No! Stop talking!” Keith slapped his hands over his ears.

Hunk chuckled, “Seconded.”

Pidge sniffed to hold back a laugh herself and tossed her hair in faux offense, accidentally dislodging Lance’s nimble fingers in the process and earning another affronted squawk.

“Whatever, but I definitely have the coolest battle scars now.”

“No way, mine’s on my face. Ultimate cool points,” Shiro teased. He was hovering close to her shoulder. Lance hadn’t moved more than a few feet from her side since she woke up yesterday and Shiro was nearly as bad. Even Keith could be found lingering by the wall of the med bay more often than not. Hunk busied himself bustling to and fro from the kitchen, trying to get Pidge to eat more than her weight in space goo.

Pidge wanted to find it funny, but she could see haunted shadows under Lance’s eyes and the way Shiro would twitch occasionally, like he was fighting another flashback. They had all been scared. She couldn’t remember much after the fight ended but what she did still sent her skin crawling. It was only Green’s constant warm presence in the back of her head that allowed her to sleep at all. She hoped Blue was helping Lance, too. 

From the bits and pieces, she’d gathered from Hunk, Lance was pretty shaken up about the whole thing. He was hiding it well by being as loud and obnoxious as he usually was but Pidge could tell. She caught him watching her more than once, his face drawn and his eyes far away. Hell, she even still heard the ominous snap of Tretch’s neck every time she tried to go to sleep. She sighed. There were more than just physical wounds to heal after this one. 

Pidge leaned back into Lance and tucked her face into his neck in an uncharacteristic show of affection. He must have been startled because there was no complaint about her messing up his work, just gentle fingers against her cheek.

“I love you guys. Thank you for not letting anything happen to me.”

Apparently she didn’t tell them she loved them enough because all she got at first were startled blinks. Then, Hunk threw himself at her as gently as possible, wrapping her up with one of his thick, soft arms. Keith pushed off from the wall and squeezed her foot. Shiro’s warm hand clasped her shoulder and when she looked up, he was smiling at her so softly that she had to blink away an unexpected tear.

After a moment, though, Pidge had enough of the sappy display. She wriggled out from underneath Hunk and Lance and tried to whack Keith under his chin with her foot.

“Hey, does anyone want to trade paladin jobs with me? I don’t want to be Guardian of the Forest anymore; trees fucking blow.”

“Pidge, language!” 

“Shiro, switch with me.”

“Oh my god.”

The soft moment was broken but everyone was laughing, and Pidge enjoyed that almost as much. Green’s soft purr filled her ears.

There were hurts that still needed soothing, but they would be okay. She was strong, and loved. Nothing could touch her, even with her feet on the ground.

**Author's Note:**

> what the fuck you guys, this is so long. I don't even know what this is, I've never even written Voltron before but Pidge and friendships give me ~feelings ~~  
> (also sorry about the violence and swearing if it's not your cup of tea. I like writing it for some reason. I'm awful.)
> 
> Let me know what you think, I'd love critiques on writing style. I can never tell if there's anything glaringly annoying about my stuff.


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